Blinken said, during a press conference with the US Secretary of State and Secretary-General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization “NATO”, Jens Stoltenberg, that his country will work to strengthen the relationship with the European Union and the Pacific countries.
The US Secretary of State confirmed that Washington is providing Ukraine with missiles and accurate long-range weapons, stressing that Kyiv has confirmed that it will not target Russian territory with new US weapons.
“The Ukrainians gave us assurances that they would not use these systems against targets on Russian territory,” the US secretary said.
He added that the United States seeks to make Ukraine stronger in any future negotiations with Russia.
For his part, the Secretary General of NATO stressed that the sanctions against Russia are many and unprecedented.
Stoltenberg said the alliance would find a way to deal with Turkish concerns about Finland and Sweden joining NATO.
A White House official said on Wednesday that Washington would provide advanced missile systems to Ukraine for use in self-defense against Russian forces, but not to carry out strikes inside Russia.
US President Joe Biden has agreed to provide Ukraine with missile systems that can accurately hit long-range Russian targets as part of a $700 million arms package due to be revealed on Wednesday, according to Reuters.
White House Deputy National Security Adviser Jonathan Viner said that the Ukrainians demand the systems and that Washington believes they will meet their needs.
“We asked the Ukrainians for guarantees that they would not use these systems to strike targets inside Russia. This is a defensive conflict that the Ukrainians are doing. Russian forces are on their soil,” Viner added in an interview with CNN.
Viner stressed the existence of important targets that the Ukrainians cannot reach with the weapons they currently have, and that the missile system will make a big difference in the conflict in the southeastern region of the country, where the Russian forces are currently concentrated.
A Russian official said Moscow viewed this development as “extremely negative”. But Viner said Biden had previously told Russian President Vladimir Putin directly about the consequences of any invasion of Ukraine.
“We are doing exactly what we said we would do. Russia brought this upon itself by invading a sovereign country,” he added.
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